Ruins (Pathfinder 2)

“For them to stop manipulating us,” said Umbo.

“We can’t even stop manipulating each other,” said Rigg. “It’s what humans do. We influence each other.”

“What, then?” asked Umbo. “We want to stop the Destroyers, too.”

“What’s our plan?” asked Rigg.

“We don’t have one,” said Olivenko.

“And why don’t we have one?” asked Rigg.

“Because we aren’t a trillion mice,” said Param.

“We don’t have a plan because we don’t know anything yet,” said Rigg. “All we have are the Future Books. And they don’t tell us the only thing that matters.”

“Why the Destroyers come,” said Loaf.

“Until we know what causes their action—their motive, how they see the world—we can’t possibly have a plan,” said Rigg.

“But the mice don’t know either!” said Param. “It’s just stupid.”

“Exactly,” said Rigg. “Yes, that’s it, Param. They have a plan, but it’s a plan to do exactly what the Destroyers are doing—wipe out the problem so you don’t have to deal with these strangers anymore.”

“Well, that’s a plan,” said Umbo. “Not a great one, but a plan.”

“What we need,” said Rigg, “is to get the mice to agree that their plan is the wrong one.”

“We don’t know it’s the wrong one,” said Param.

“Not the wrong one, then,” said Rigg. “Premature, how’s that?”

They murmured their assent.

“We need to get them to agree to wait through one more cycle,” said Rigg.

“Why would they do that?” said Olivenko. “There have already been nine cycles. This is the first one that included mice—they want to see what they can do.”

“But in the other cycles, all the Odinfolders ever knew was whatever message was sent back by the people of the future,” said Rigg. “This time, we have us. We can see for ourselves. Meet the Visitors. See the Destroyers. Then we shift back to now, or to . . . sometime. We go back, and then we can do something together, we and the mice, because we’ll know a lot more than the scant information in a Future Book.”

“It’ll be the first time that ever happened,” said Olivenko.

“It means taking the mice into the past with us,” said Umbo. “Both times—right now, and then at the end, when the Destroyers come.”

“We’ll have all their memories to pool with ours,” said Param.

“It makes sense to us,” said Loaf. “Will it make sense to them?”

“Yes,” said the ship’s voice.

“Yes what?” asked Rigg.

“They agree that your plan is a good one,” said the ship’s voice. “They agree to wait through a cycle, as long as you promise to bring back as many of them as you can.”

So the mice had understood them after all. How? “You translated for them,” said Rigg.

“I didn’t have to,” said the ship. “Where did you learn the language of Imperial O?”

“From Ramex,” said Rigg, feeling stupid.